Year 3

Welcome to Year 3! The beginning of the KS2 journey. Miss Stewart and Miss O’Connor would like to welcome all children and families to St Joseph’s Year 3 class. In year 3 there is a welcoming family feel that will nurture and support your child and their needs. Year 3 is a class where being ready, being safe and being respectful is instilled each day. Together, Miss Stewart and Miss O’Connor are dedicated to creating an engaging, caring, positive environment where each child feels safe, valued, and ready to learn.

Miss Stewart and Miss O’Connor started working at St Joseph’s in September 2025. Both members of staff give their all to the children in year 3 and go that extra mile to make sure your child is happy in school. Believe it or not, Miss Stewart and Miss O’Connor are both Irish Dancers and have even run their own Irish Dancing club at school! Miss Stewart loves going to concerts, especially Harry Styles, as well as spending time with her family and friends. Miss Stewart loves working at St Joseph’s because she believes there is something incredibly rewarding about watching children grow, not just academically, but socially and emotionally too.

Miss Stewart also favors the Catholic ethos that is deeply rooted within St Joseph’s, as well as their relationship with the church, as Miss Stewart attended Catholic schools during her education. Most importantly Miss Stewart loves the relationships she has built with the children and staff at St Joseph’s, as even being part of a child’s journey in small ways is more than special. Miss O’Connor has a great interest in all topics that we learn about in year 3, especially science and geography. She loves the close-knit relationships that are embedded within St Joseph’s, not just with children but staff and the wider community. She also admires the way everyone is involved, and all the needs of all children are taken into consideration. And both members of the year 3 team love that no two days are the same!

Year 3 provides children with a broad and balanced curriculum that is tailored to each child’s needs. In Year 3, children grow in confidence and independence in reading and writing. They develop fluency and expression while exploring a range of texts and learn to explain their ideas using evidence. In writing, they organise their work into paragraphs, write in different genres such as stories, recounts and letters. They will also improve their grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The focus is on building strong core skills while encouraging creativity and a love of language. In maths, children strengthen their understanding of number and the four operations, working with numbers up to 1,000 and developing recall of the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. They learn about fractions and apply their skills to areas such as time, money, and measurement. They also explore shape, perimeter, and data. The overall aim is to build fluency, reasoning, and confidence in problem solving. Being a catholic school, the children have a strong focus on RE to provide a great understanding of the religion. In science, children learn about the key topics including plants, animals (including humans), rocks, light, and forces and magnets, nutrition, skeletons, life cycle of plants, alongside building their scientific inquiry skills. In humanities, year 3 learn about their local area, the UK and wider world as well as human and physical features of these places. In history the children learn about Pre-historic Britain and Ancient Civilizations, where the children get to go to the museum to learn more about Ancient Egypt. In Art and Design, children explore painting, drawing and sculpting and in DT learn practical skills such as measuring, cutting and joining. Year 3 is the beginning of learning a different language! The children begin to develop basic speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in French. In PSHE they learn about health and wellbeing, relationships, and living in the wider world. The focus is on developing resilience, respect, responsibility, and understanding how to keep themselves safe. The children get 2 PE lessons a week, ranging from, Gymnastics with an external coach, NUF sessions and dancing!

Year 3 marks the beginning of Key Stage 2! The children start and learn French for the first time, allowing them to learn and understand a different language and culture. At Christmas, year 3 do a Carol Performance with readings with the year 4 class at our local Parish Church. Year 3 is also the first year for children to go swimming! This opportunity is amazing for children’s confidence and water safety. In year 3 we also have two school councilors and a sports councilor who are reliant members of our class who act as a pupil voice to potentially make positive changes around school.